Sehun pulled Jongin along as they both ran last in line, getting by just in time.

                  Behind those walls was a small house. It had a fishpond in front of it, and was built very much like a traditional Japanese teahouse (chasu). The wind was strong, even though the space was enclosed. The sunlight was merciless before it entered, but now it seemed to be neutralized by the transparent roof.

                  “Where’s the house…?” Chanyeol asked, confused. We had expected the real house to be much bigger than this, and we hadn’t seen anything else, except for a normal looking wooden teahouse and a small fishpond. Everything seemed so normal and boring, and we couldn’t detect a single presence in the area.

                  “Oh, just wait. Don’t be so impatient,” Jongdae muttered with a frown. Not long after, we heard a click and thirteen people came out from the sliding door of the house. It was a wonder how they came, and how that small house could have fit more than three people inside, unless there was some sort of hidden staircases that led to the underwater level.

                  All of them carried a katana on their backs, without the sword shell. The edge was so pointy it would cut a blunt end. One by one, they knelt on the floor respectfully and bowed their heads to Jongdae and Joonmyun. The first one in line – presumably their leader – with a baby-like face greeted, “Masters, welcome home.”

                  Joonmyun stepped to the front, ignoring the visible frown on Jongdae’s face that had yet to disappear. It was apparent who their loyalties belonged to, and it was most definitely not the youngest son of the Genbu house. “Seungcheol, you can stop kneeling and get up now. All of you, please.”

                  They were all fair and beautiful. Especially the ones on the row end, who looked more like lovers than partners. One was a beautiful man and the other was a good-looking hunk. They all stood up, eyes still on Joonmyun like the trained Elites they were. I had not heard much of the Genbu’s Elites, but Joonmyun mentioned that his clan had seventeen before and four of them were killed during a fight with Byakko.

                  “These are our Seiryuu guests: Lady Sena, the head of the family, her two protectors, Kim Jongin and Oh Sehun, and her six Elites. You will treat them with respect and open minds, because they are our allies and she is my fiancée. Do I make myself clear?”

                  Their sharp gazes swept us in one single glance. The leader, Seungcheol stepped out and bowed at me, who was at the very front with Joonmyun and Jongdae. He didn’t look particularly warm nor cold when he spoke, just a monotonous face without a hint of human emotion, “Lady Sena, we are most pleased to welcome you to the Genbu’s headquarter. You may address us by numbers if you wish to call upon us.”

                  There were numbers tattooed onto his neck and I instantly felt bad, “Or you can always tell me your name later on.”

                  It lasted no more than a second – and a very short one, on top of that – but I saw the ghost of a beautiful smile on Seungcheol’s face before it disappeared. Joonmyun had mentioned how proud he was of Genbu’s training system and I could see why. There was not a trace of imperfection or a chance for slip-up for his Elites.

                  “Sena is not as unreasonable as the other leaders, Seungcheol, you need not be so uptight,” Joonmyun smiled and reached out to pat the other’s shoulder. He seemed so much younger, dared I say, as young as I was if not more – especially when the tension between his brows had loosened up.

                  “Easy for you to say, Second Brother. These thirteen Elites only listen to your command. Not even Minseok could sway their loyalties,” Jongdae sarcastically commented. I knew from personal experience that Kim Jongdae could be extremely blunt and mean, but he wasn’t as vicious as his older brothers. He had a way with words, and less with the heart, so he could be strangely sympathetic at one time, and apathetic on the other.

                  “Don’t be so charming, Jongdae,” I replied with the same amount of sarcasm he used to Joonmyun, “If Minseok heard you, he wouldn’t have spared you, brother or not.”

                  “Yes, yes, thank you for the lovely reminder, Sena. Now let’s get on with it and go back home,” Jongdae rudely retorted and yawned in boredom. He turned to the first guard and spoke in an obnoxiously loud voice, “Number One, Choi Seungcheol, please lead the way for our guests.”    

                  Seungcheol complied and opened the wooden door. All the other twelve made a formation as we walked through. Albeit not warm, it was a respectable welcoming. Joonmyun and I walked hand in hand, but in the end, I let him enter first. Jongin was behind me, followed by Sehun and Luhan, all based on their rankings in our clan.

                  Behind that small door, a staircase led down to a white tunnel. We walked for less than twenty steps and found a big lift that could carry half of us, so as the guests, we went first with Jongdae and Seungcheol, leaving the Genbu’s twelve Elites behind. The lift went down and because it was transparent, we could see the inner layer of the soil, brown and black in color. It took a long while before the lift suddenly took a turn and went forward with a frightening speed. For a second there, I thought that it would burst through the ground and launched off on its own, but instead, it plummeted into the water.

                  I gasped. Such was the beauty and magnificence of Genbu’s headquarter. Seiryuu’s large mansion which covered hundred acres was so conventional compared to their technology. Sure, we would have ten stories of antiques, but this was just fascinating! Underwater, I felt like we were moving in a giant aquarium that gradually slowed down because of the pressure.

                  Fishes of all colors and sizes were present. Eels, jellyfish, one or two tiger sharks and a group of adventurous bull sharks were swimming around in the light blue part of the ocean. Singapore’s beach wasn’t as clean as the commercial beaches, but the inside was surprisingly bright.

                  The color became darker as we went deeper into the ocean. When we reached the darkest part, where even the sunlight illuminated only part of it, I finally saw what Joonmyun meant by mutated sea creatures. They were humongous in size – and I really meant monstrous.

                  “Explain to me, what are those?” I whispered in half-awe, half-fear.

                  “You see the one with spots? Those are tiger sharks, modified twice its size. And they are cannibalistic, they even eat other sharks,” Joonmyun pointed at one shark with light leopard spots. It swam across our lift, and I had to hold onto something to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming. The size was at least half a ship.

                  “People often find that the great white sharks and the bull sharks are quite similar in nature, but…” Joonmyun’s words were cut half when Jongdae shouted to everyone with a bit of panic in his voice, “Careful, everyone! This one doesn’t play nice!”

                  And he was right. The bull shark Joonmyun was pointing at suddenly swam towards us in an unusually quick speed and head-butted our lift. The whole box shook at the bump and I could hear Tao’s soft whimper from the back. It was exactly like the sharks horror movies I often watched, except that this was very much real.

                  “Yeah,” Joonmyun smiled with a twitch on his eye, “Bull sharks are considered by many to be the most aggressive, especially the newborn ones we just created a year ago. Not as big as the tiger sharks, but is twice as vicious. They love to swim to the shallow water and sometimes to river and lake, but we try to keep them happy here by feeding them more.”

                  “And the infamous Great White, just like the one you’ve seen in TV,” I came face to face with a curious great white shark who swam around our lift. It was by far, the biggest among the group of three, but was also the calmest, and in that calmness, danger lurked. “One of the best creations our scientists have created. Vicious, smart, huge and fast. The other one is, ah, there.”

                  News about crocodiles had scared me before, and I had heard about saltwater crocodiles who swam to the shore sometimes, but nothing was as magnificent and terrifying as ones who could swim to such depth. It was a mutant, but still, it was a wonder to see a saltwater crocodile along with other gigantic creatures.

                  “They are always, always hungry, so they aren’t very happy most of the time.”

                  A sea snake with twice the size of giant anaconda coiled itself around our box and swam along the water. It finally let go when we reached a stop; a building that reminded me of the underwater resort in Dubai. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at my Elites, some of which looked positively sour after the encounters. Sehun was the only one who was fascinated enough to still look at those creatures after we entered a safe zone.

                  “Thank God there are no giant octopuses around this time,” I jokingly told Joonmyun and saw that his face changed into a bitter smile, “That only means we are lucky, Sena. They are not very active this time of the day.”

                  Before I could respond, the lift’s door opened and a lot of people came in our direction. At the very front, was a woman I recognized as Joonmyun’s mother, Minseok, and some of Genbu’s Elders. His mother, in particular, wore a big warm smile I didn’t like. There was an unfamiliar man behind her, presumably his young lover who was in his early twenty.

                  “Joonmyun, at last you’ve come home!” She cried loudly and attracted lots of attention. I knew that he was uncomfortable by the sudden display of affection, but he faked a big smile when his mother threw herself and hugged him very tightly. I didn’t miss the sly glance she gave me during that long, torturous hug.

                  “And Sena,” She grinned. I hated to be a , but I didn’t like the way she associated to me so warmly as if we were close in-laws. Did I also mention how much I hated bootlickers? “Ah, such a beautiful young lady. My apologies for not greeting you last week. It was one hell of a chaos.”

                  She said it so lightly, as if her husband of twenty-something years did not just die from that accident. For Joonmyun’s sake, however, I had to be polite to her. I swept one cold gaze at Minseok and he understood immediately. The shorter young man held his mother back before she could give me a hug and warned her in a not-so-respectful tone,

                  “Mother, hold yourself. She might be Joonmyun’s fiancée, but she is still the leader of the Seiryuu. Please address her appropriately with her title ‘Lady’.”

                  I liked the smugness that I felt when her expression fell. It was good to have an official title at times like this. Joonmyun didn’t even try to defend her and stayed very quiet, and the youngest son didn’t look particularly interested in the mother-and-son drama she was playing at.

                  “Ah, but she is still my daughter-in-law,” His mother sniffed pitifully. Her youthful face was wrinkle-free and she was still very attractive. Kim Yong Ha hadn’t been a good-looking man in his youth, so all the good looks they inherited came from their mother. “I just thought that I should greet her warmly and treat her as my own. Won’t you like that, Lady Sena?”

                  I couldn’t give a damn about that, but with a sweet smile, I spoke with a voice that disgusted myself, “I am here to sign the treaty agreement, Mam.” So for now, I was no one’s daughter-in-law, more or less to a like her. She had ignored Joonmyun for the past decades and I should avenge him for these few weeks of my stay. Besides, she didn’t possess a power over the council that could change the course of our agreement. Her useless good-looking-and-no-brainer lover didn’t look all that powerful either.

                  “Oh,” Her face turned very sour and she gave me a quick nod and left with a loud snort. I exchanged a smirk with Joonmyun as he sneaked his hand back to hold mine. It felt like a public-but-secretive rendezvous and it was every bit as exciting as any drama could get.

I had a fiancé I wasn’t in love with, a bodyguard I was starting to see in a new light, an older brother figure who was in love with me, a best friend, a harem and people who were dead set in killing me. Surely life couldn’t get any better than this, right?

A/N: This is the headquarter, picture credits to Underwater Hotel in Turkey: